HowTheyGotUsersHowTheyGotUsers

Borrow Supply From Someone Else's Platform

Borrow Supply From Someone Else's Platform is a first users & traction tactic for getting your first users: Solve the cold-start supply problem by hand-mining an existing platform where your ideal sellers or experts already publish, then personally recruiting the best of them to serve the demand you've already collected.

It's a strong fit for Marketplaces teams, and works especially well for marketplaces, two-sided platforms. As a first users & traction play, plan for medium effort and expect results to show up quickly, all grounded in 1 linked primary source.

First users & tractionMedium effortFast

Why does first users & traction work for this?

You skip the chicken-and-egg trap by importing pre-vetted supply against demand you can already point to, which makes the outreach a warm, specific ask rather than a cold pitch.

The exact steps (5)

The full step-by-step this founder ran, what they posted, where, and in what order, plus the watch-outs, is part of the library.

Unlock the steps · $29 oncePlus all 3,000+ tactics and the new ones we add weekly.

Sources

Works for
Marketplaces

Frequently asked

What kind of products does the "Borrow Supply From Someone Else's Platform" tactic work for?
It is a good fit for Marketplaces — pick it when your product looks like that, since the play is shaped around how those users find new tools.
How is the "Borrow Supply From Someone Else's Platform" tactic verified?
It is drawn from 1 primary source — a real founder write-up or interview, not generic advice. It is linked in the Sources section above so you can read the original account yourself.
How much effort is it and how fast are results?
It is medium effort, and results tend to be fast.
Where can I see the exact step-by-step?
The full step-by-step a founder ran, documented via How to Start a SaaS Business From Scratch, is in the paid library.

Related tactics

First users & tractionHigh effort· Medium

Camp Upwork Listings and Be the First Low Bid

To land his first freelance gig, the author sat on Upwork for hours refreshing new listings and fired off a proposal the instant a relevant project appeared, bidding at little or no cost to win the first reviews.

Read the steps →
First users & tractionMedium effort· Fast

Engineer a Shopify App Store Staff Picks Feature

Launching their beta in the Shopify App Store got them featured in Staff Picks within a month, driving the traffic for their first 1,000 installs; they later landed two homepage features of 7 days each.

Read the steps →
First users & tractionHigh effort· Medium

Seed an Empty Platform With Scraped Competitor Content

TikTok reportedly mass-scraped content from Instagram and Snapchat (targeting 10k-plus videos a day in priority countries) to pre-fill the app so new users never saw an empty feed.

Read the steps →
First users & tractionLow effort· Fast

Seed Early Users With Free or Discounted Access

Lower or remove the price for your first cohort in exchange for real usage, honest feedback, and permission to feature them as success stories.

Read the steps →
First users & tractionHigh effort· Slow

Turn Niche Freelance Gigs Into a Productized Agency

Use a freelance marketplace to land paid projects in a domain you already understand (here finance/data), then compound that client base and tool knowledge into a full agency.

Read the steps →
First users & tractionMedium effort· Slow

Pick a Wedge: One Narrow Entry Into a Huge Market

Instead of launching at a broad category, you choose one sharply defined segment or use case as your beachhead, dominate it, and expand outward from a position of strength.

Read the steps →

Get all 3,000+ tactics in one place

Filter by your product and channel, follow the exact steps, and get the new tactics we add every week. One payment, yours for good.

Unlock for $29 onceBrowse by channel